CC:

Why are terrorists attacking in the Phillipines, Turkey and Indonesia?

A little slow on the uptake today, Burnie? I answered your question in my 19 Nov 04 - 04:02 PM post. But here it is again in case you can't figure out how find it for yourself...

Indonesia has a complicated set of circumstances that it's dealing with and it would probably be a mistake to try to assign one specific reason for the terrorist attacks in that country. In the case of the Bali bombings, the fact that one of the targets was the US consulate, and the other target was a nightclub that was heavily frequented by Australians, along with the fact that the US with the help of Australia, was preparing to wage an invasion of Iraq, suggests a very strong probability that the terrorist attacks were linked to US and Australian foriegn policy. Other terrorist incidents in Indonesia appear to be connected to separatist movements within Indonesia against the Indonesian government.

The most recent terrorist attacks in Turkey were against Jewish and British targets. Turkey has strategic relationships with both Israel and the coalition of countries involved in the war against Iraq, which includes the UK. Those strategic relationships put Turkey at risk of terrorist attacks related to the US and UK led war against Iraq, as well as Israel's Palestinian policies.

The terrorist attacks in the Phillippines are linked to the efforts of separatists who want to establish an independent state in the southern part of the Phillippines.